Reducing the Item Number to Obtain Same-Length Self-Assessment Scales: A Systematic Approach Using Result of Graphical Loglinear Rasch Modeling

Nielsen, Tine; Kreiner, Svend

Journal of Applied Measurement, v12 n4 p310-323 Win 2011

The Revised Danish Learning Styles Inventory (R-D-LSI) (Nielsen 2005), which is an adaptation of Sternberg-Wagner Thinking Styles Inventory (Sternberg, 1997), comprises 14 subscales, each measuring a separate learning style. Of these 14 subscales, 9 are eight items long and 5 are seven items long. For self-assessment, self-scoring and self-interpretational purposes it is deemed prudent that subscales measuring comparable constructs are of the same item length. Consequently, in order to obtain a self-assessment version of the R-D-LSI with an equal number of items in each subscale, a systematic approach to item reduction based on results of graphical loglinear Rasch modeling (GLLRM) was designed. This approach was then used to reduce the number of items in the subscales of the R-D-LSI which had an item-length of more than seven items, thereby obtaining the Danish Self-Assessment Learning Styles Inventory (D-SA-LSI) comprising 14 subscales each with an item length of seven. The systematic approach to item reduction based on results of GLLRM will be presented and exemplified by its application to the R-D-LSI.